Remodeling has started on the one-time Bally's building at 985 W. Fillmore St., turning the former fitness center into the new home of the Pikes Peak Council of the
Boy Scouts of America.
The tentative opening date is sometime in July, according to Wendy Shaw, assistant scout executive.
The exterior will look about the same, except for a new paint job. The major work is occurring inside the 14,720-square-foot building. A key design feature will be
the public meeting space, which can be divided into four separate rooms or opened up, in conjunction with adjoining activity space, to allow about 100 people at a
time, she explained.
Good news for the Westside is that the public area “can be used for free by community groups when it's not being used by the scouts,” Shaw said. At the council's
former, longtime location on East Uintah Street, public uses included a polling place for elections and meeting sites for groups ranging from a Star Trek club to the
U.S. Forest Service.
“Welcome, Westside, and you have another meeting place,” Shaw enthused.
Other offerings for the scouts will be a climbing wall, an indoor shooting range (for archery and small firearms), a general-use kitchen, a resource room/scouting
museum, and offices for the Pikes Peak Council's 15 staffers.
The council represents more than 11,000 Boy Scouts in an eight-county geographical area roughly bounded by Monument, the Kansas border, Pueblo and Hartsel.
The Fillmore Street site fulfills a need for training space that did not exist at Uintah. Since buying the property three years ago, the council has been renting at 2760 N.
Academy Blvd. while finalizing plans for the new facility.
The project contractor is Murphy Constructors.